The National Telecommuni-cations Commission (NTC) recently approved the establishment of an interconnection institute to provide training to staff and settle interconnection disputes between telecom operators.

NTC member Sudharma Yoonai-dharma said yesterday the NTC had appointed its telecom specialist

Pitjapol Jantanasaro as the institute's director.

Pitjapol was an assistant to the chief executive of cellular operator Total Access Communication (DTAC). He resigned from DTAC late last year before the NTC appointed him as its specialist in February.

Sudharma said a main role of the institute would be coordinating with the regulator's Interconnection Settlement Panel to handle telecom operators' disputes.

"The institute will also train our staff to have a deep interconnection knowledge," he added.

The NTC board also approved funding of Bt60 million for the institute's establishment.

Telecom operators are in talks with one another to finalise rates for the interconnection charge they will levy on each other, following the NTC's approval of their Reference Interconnection Offer (RIO) proposals on August 25.

The RIO covers the commercial and technical terms governing the interconnection agreements that telecom operators make among themselves.

The NTC is implementing the interconnection charge, which requires all telecom operators to share on a fair basis voice and data revenues between the two networks involved in a call.

Sudharma said the interconnection institute would step in to settle problems if the telecom operators failed to decide on the final interconnection rates within the 90-day time frame following RIO approval.

As part of the training programme on the interconnection charge, the NTC has invited experts from the French telecom institute Ecole Nationale Superieure des Telecommunications to teach NTC staff during a three-day interconnection seminar, which ends today.

The event is co-hosted by the NTC and True Corp Plc.

Moreover, the NTC has reached an agreement with the EU to exchange experts and knowledge on the interconnection charge under the so-called Knowledge Partnership Programme.

Sudharma said that during November, the EU would send telecom regulatory experts from Germany and Belgium to provide knowledge to NTC staff.

He added that the NTC had also invited interconnection experts from the University of Florida.

Usanee Mongkolporn

The Nation

Hua Hin